Project #10 - A/C Cover

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Well, those that have followed my Projects over the years know that I added a home A/C unit to my camper. The A/C is still running as good now as it did when I installed it.

In an effort to extend the A/Cs life span and to help on preventative maintainence I did two things.

First off, I had a fin guard made to fit on the back of the unit to prevent tree branches, rocks, and small children from denting the fins in the evaporator coils. If you revisit my California Adventure thread, and go to Part 4 and view the pictures from Mattole Beach you'll see the steel fin guard I installed on the A/C.

Second, I had a removable cover made for the A/C unit. Terry, my friend and trusted welder happened to have a friend who runs an upholstery business that dealt in boat covers. Upon chatting with him, he suggested a material known as Herculite. Its rip proof, fire proof, fade proof and water proof. Its also a PITA to sew, but will outlast any vinyl cover ever made. He had made countless boat covers from this material and had left over material.

Since I was a friend of Terry's, a deal was cut and for a modest fee we managed to find enough material in his leftovers that by sheer happenstance matched the camper's new paint job to make my A/C cover.




The whole cover is held on by a single strap of industrial elastic. Since the front edge tends to flap out a bit, we're going to add a velcro strip to the underside of the brushguard and to the front bottom edge of the cover so I can pull the front tight with the bottom of the unit.

A properly sized hole was cut in the cover to accomodate the drain hose attached to the drain port on the A/C to help wick away excess rain run off and A/C Condensation.